Mayor Alex Morse of Holyoke, Massachusetts (image via Facebook) College Democrats in Massachusetts have issued an apology to openly gay Mayor Alex Morse of Holyoke for their role in what turned into unfounded attacks on Morse and “played into homophobic stereotypes that have been used to oppress gay men in politics.” Morse, currently in his 4th term as mayor, is running to unseat Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA) who has represented Massachusetts in the House of Representatives since 1989. The Democratic primary will be held on Tuesday, September 1. Earlier this month, Instinctreported on a letter sent to Morse from three groups of College Democrats, including the UMass Amherst Democrats, informing him he was no longer welcome at College Democratic events and accusing him of using his “position of power for romantic or sexual gain, specifically toward young students.” Morse had been a guest lecturer at UMass Amherst in 2019 and attended one event hosted by the school’s College Democrats. Morse, 31, quickly responded to the allegations saying as an openly gay man he has dated younger people but all interactions were consensual and none were with any students who might have attended his lectures. No students have come forward to say otherwise. The story quickly spiraled and went national with ugly tones of homophobia. The story became much bigger when The Intercept followed up the story with reporting that revealed leaders of the UMass Amherst Democrats had been discussing ways to discover Morse’s dating app profiles and perhaps “lead him into saying something incriminating that would then damage his campaign.” The chief strategist of the chapter at the time, Timothy Ennis, wrote in chat messages that while he was unsure about digging up dirt on Morse, he was a “Neal Stan” and hoped to land a position in the congressman’s office. “But I need a job,” wrote Ennis according to The Intercept. “Neal will give me an internship.” A second report from The Intercept suggested state Democratic Party leaders might have played a role in the drafting of the letter to Morse as well as making the allegations public. On Friday, the UMass Amherst Democrats executive board sent Morse a letter apologizing for the “public distress that the public reaction to the letter must have cost you.” Admitting the letter was never intended to become public, they added, “We should have realized that the language of the letter was careless and played into homophobic stereotypes that have been used to oppress gay men in politics.” “We understand that no apology of ours can make up for the homophobic attacks you have suffered as a result of our actions; nonetheless, we wish to apologize. We wish you the best of luck in your campaign.” The College Democrats also included a copy of a letter sent to the general membership of the group explaining the board had only been shown the initial letter “briefly” and were asked to sign on by the chapter’s president, Andrew Abramson, “in solidarity.” “We are deeply sorry that Alex Morse has faced homophobic attacks as a result of our actions and that our decision has negatively impacted the LGBT+ community, including our own membership,” read the letter to the general membership. “We wish Alex Morse the best of luck in his campaign and political career.” Morse’s campaign shared the apology with the Daily Hampshire Gazette calling the initial letter “an unfortunate situation that happened.” In an interview with Jacobin Magazine, Morse characterized the attack as “incredibly dangerous to our democracy,” and added the accusations could have “a chilling effect for young people, queer people, single people, basically telling us we can’t or shouldn’t run for office.” Even though the apology was sent to Morse, other groups are still using the story to undermine his candidacy before the primary. American Working Families, a Democratic group, pulled an attack ad it ran after catching flak for homophobic undertones in the spot. The ad went after Morse’s record as mayor, made vague accusations that his campaign is being funded by “outside special interests” and brought up “sexual relationships with college students.” The group told Twitter on Saturday the spot was “never intended to air” adding that “it was accidentally sent to stations instead of a corrected version.”
This is the ad they sent to stations with the concluding sentences: “Now Alex Morse admits to sexual relationships with college students — even while he was a university lecturer. Alex Morse, terrible judgment, we don’t need in Congress.” https://t.co/GcTSzmXBzVpic.twitter.com/6KyGT8p2Xw
There have also been robocalls reported that were “disguised as surveys” asking if respondents would still support Morse if he had “sent sexually explicit emails to college-aged students.”
The smearing of Morse continues. Voters are getting robocalls disguised as surveys telling them he sent sexually explicit to college students. Advocates for Neal wouldn't be doing this if they didn't think it was working. https://t.co/OZpvKFFsLGpic.twitter.com/I5B7uSZUxB
President Trump’s eldest son on Saturday posted a social media message suggesting Joseph R. Biden Jr. was a pedophile, an incendiary and baseless charge that illustrates the tactics the president is turning to as he attempts to erase Mr. Biden’s early advantage in key state polls.
Donald Trump Jr., who is one of his father’s most prominent campaign surrogates, put on Instagram a picture of Mr. Biden saying: “See you later, alligator” alongside an image of an alligator saying: “In a while, pedophile.”
When a reporter shared the Instagram post online, the younger Mr. Trump, echoing one of his father’s tactics, wrote on Twitter that he was only “joking around” and noted that he had included emojis of a laughing face.
Junior also restated his accusations of ‘unwanted touching’ by the former vice president using a collection of photos picturing Biden hugging children. But the pics, primarily from swearing-in ceremonies, were taken out of context when actually he was greeting lawmakers and their families.
1. The 3 🤣 emojis in the caption should indicate to anyone with a scintilla of common sense that I’m joking around. 2. If the media doesn’t want people mocking & making jokes about how creepy Joe is, then maybe he should stop the unwanted touching & keep his hands to himself? https://t.co/Jy98aq6yWDpic.twitter.com/Kcr9jdPSbC
Oh, look! The idiot son of “Grab ‘Em by the Pussy” is lecturing on keeping your hands to yourself. You will note that all of these girls have clothes on. Unlike when your creepy dad barged in on girls in changing rooms at teen pageants to ogle their naked, underage bodies. 🤮
Fox News’ Chris Wallace tells the author of Clinton Cash that he doesn’t provide a “single piece of evidence” to back up his allegations that donors to the Clinton Foundation received favors from Hillary Clinton during her time as Secretary of State.
During an interview on Fox News Sunday, author Peter Schweizer suggested that Hillary Clinton approved a deal that eventually allowed the Russian government to control some U.S. uranium mines.
But Wallace pointed out that the book offers innuendo without any proof that Clinton ever took any action approving the sale of the mines.
“It’s not just the State Department,” Wallace explained. “It’s nine separate agencies… There is no hard evidence — and you don’t cite any in the book — that Hillary Clinton took direct action, was involved in any way in approving, as one nine agencies, the sale of the company.”
Schweizer argued that “any one of those agencies had veto power so she could have stopped the deal.”
“You don’t have a single piece of evidence that she was involved in this deal, that she sent a memo to the State Department person that was on this committee and said, ‘Hey, we want to approve the uranium sale,'” Wallace pressed.
“I am a journalist,” Schweizer insisted. “I don’t have access to government records. I certainly don’t have access to her emails, which it doesn’t seem like anybody does. But the fundamental question is, with this deal and with the others we cite in the book, is it coincidence in a pattern that we see repeated dozens of times where large Clinton supporters have business before the State Department, they make large payments and favorable actions are taken?”
“I don’t think that coincidences occur that frequently,” he added.
Now, when even Fox News (FOX NEWS!!!) says you don’t have any evidence to support your Hillary attack, you know it’s a sketchy kinda book.
